Thoughts about Olympic Games by Barão Pierre de Coubertin

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

Racial distinctions should not play a role in sport.

Sport must be accessible to working class youth.

For me sport was a religion... with religious sentiment.

Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of a good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

In our view the Olympic idea involves a strong physical culture supplemented on the one hand by mobility, what is so aptly called 'fair play', and on the other hand by aesthetics, that is the cultivation of what is beautiful and graceful.

The Olympic Movement gives the world an ideal which reckons with the reality of life, and includes a possibility to guide this reality toward the great Olympic Idea.